


The Hanyou Caged

by Laci_Taleweaver



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Devotion, F/M, Love is strength, Post-Canon, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:02:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27289087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laci_Taleweaver/pseuds/Laci_Taleweaver
Summary: InuYasha mentally prepares for the new moon and a night in human form.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, InuYasha/Kikyou (InuYasha)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	The Hanyou Caged

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I don't even know, y'all. It just came to me. Lyrics for "Kagome, Kagome" are the version found on the Wikipedia page for the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagome_Kagome

InuYasha watched in the late afternoon as a tiny sliver of moon sank below the horizon. The thin crescent looked like an ivory sickle, or like the little bits of fingernail that Kagome would trim off off her fingertips with that odd metal device she'd brought back with her. Tonight would be a new moon, the first new moon since he'd wed Kagome.

In the village square, he heard children playing, singing the old song that was his wife's namesake:

_Kagome kagome_  
_Kago no naka no tori wa..._  
_(Kagome, kagome_  
_The bird is trapped within the cage)_

InuYasha grunted, smiling. Kagome had told him that the song was still being sung in the future age she'd been born into.

The child who was the game's Oni sat trapped in the middle. _We were all trapped,_ he realized. _We were trapped until my Kagome came here and helped us to free ourselves and each other._ Did the young woman from the future even realize how much she'd changed everything, just by being here, just by being the kind-hearted, strong-willed person she was?

Maybe that was why he'd waited stubbornly near the Bone-Eating Well for two years until she'd returned, like a faithful dog. He had waited even when it had seemed impossible that she might ever return, through sun, rain, and snow. He'd been waiting for her to free him again.

_Itsu itsu de yaru?_  
_Yoake no ban ni_  
_(When, oh when will it come out?_  
_In the evening of dawn)_

Old Kaede had muttered about his folly as she and little Shippou had brought him his meals. ( _"She's not going to come back any sooner just because you're staring at that old well, you know."_ ) Sango had brought him a blanket to keep him warm when the winters had come. Miroku had sipped tea with him some days as he'd waited by that well for something that might never come, that might be as impossible as evening and dawn happening together.

_Tsuru to kame ga subetta_  
_(The crane and turtle slipped and fell)_

On the night they'd finally been wed, he had been so very careful as they'd consummated their union. He'd been terrified that with the strength he'd inherited from his father, he might hurt her, awed that she was willing to do this with him in the first place. She'd seemed so small and fragile as she'd lain there, him desperately trying to hold back his full power, to avoid tearing her skin with his demon-claws. It had startled him when she'd clung to him with arms that were deceptively strong from archery; when she'd said afterwards, before they drifted off to sleep, that she'd enjoyed it too. That was when it finally hit home how much she truly loved him too: when she'd told him she enjoyed loving him on their wedding night.

_Ushiro no shoumen daare?_  
_(Who is behind you now?)_

In about an hour, the sun would sink below the horizon, and his silver hair would turn black. Claws would shrink into fingernails. His dog-like pointed ears would drift down to become human ears. He would be fully human for a night, the thing he had briefly desired in those old days with Kikyo, before the whole nightmare of Naraku's evil had begun.

And for the first time since his mother had died all those years ago, InuYasha felt that he would be truly safe in his human form. He had the strength of his friends and the love of his new wife to protect him. Kagome would keep him safe in her arms, surround him with her sweet woman-scent that, even as a human, he could still faintly smell. He would gladly sleep in the arms of the woman he loved, knowing that they would always protect each other.

His ear twitched as he heard someone approach him from behind. He smelled who it was before he heard the voice.

"There's a new moon tonight," Miroku said. The former monk smiled as InuYasha turned to look at him. "Are you going to be all right, InuYasha?"

"Yeah," he said, "don't worry about me." His youkai half would be locked away until dawn, but it would be all right. Kagome would be there beside him. His friends would be sleeping just a few houses down, in the village where everything started. A small village, quiet and peaceful since the Shikon no Tama had been destroyed.

In the village square, a new Oni was chosen, and the children started the game anew.


End file.
